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With Ottawa coming off a nice home win over Tampa Bay on Saturday afternoon in which DJ Smith said it was the team's most complete game this season, let's see if the Sens can build off their recent success winning 4 of their last 5 games and keep playing consistent hockey in the upcoming road trip. They will be catching Florida off a 3 game road trip that included losses at STL and Colorado, with their only win over AZ. The Panthers have the best home record in the NHL with a 14-1 record!

The nice part about this road trip is that the Sens have no games on back-to-back nights. After the Panthers game, Ottawa travels to Tampa to take on the Lightning and you know they will have revenge on their minds after getting shut out on Saturday. But TB has a tough stretch as they head right back out on the road after the Sens game to Colorado, does TB get caught looking ahead? Ottawa ends the road trip in Philly but the Flyers just won in Vegas and AZ, with games against NJ and MTL on deck. It's quite likely the Sens could be catching the Flyers at the wrong time and on a possible 4 game win streak but I guess time will tell this week. It sure would be nice if Ottawa could get 3 out of a possible 6 points on the road trip.

Last week I took a look at the Sens UFA list, below are the current RFA's for Ottawa come this summer. Who would you keep? Who would you qualify or who would you give a multi-year contract extension to?

Josh Norris - The only question here is, will his new deal be for 6, 7, or 8 years?

Alex Formenton - The question here is, do you give him a bridge deal?

Erik Brannstrom - Unless he's traded this season, Ottawa will qualify him as it was Dorion's greatest day as a GM when he acquired him!

Dylan Gambrell - If the Sens bring back Bishop, then I cant see Dorion qualifying him. Norris/Stutzle/Pinto/White and with Greig/Kastelic and Kelly coming there's no need to keep him in my eyes.

Adam Gaudette - Goodbye, plus it wouldn't surprise me at all if Ottawa ends up putting him on waivers at some point later this season.

Victor Mete - Chabot/Zub//Zaitsev/Brannstrom/Thomson/JBD/Heatherington plus Sanderson should make the jump to pro in April. That's 8 defensemen and Ottawa could bring back Holden too, so I just can't see any scenario where Mete is given a qualifying offer. Therefore making him a UFA.

Clarke Bishop - If Bishop hadn't been injured Ottawa never would've traded for Gambrell let alone claimed Gaudetter off waivers. He was very solid last year in his 4th line role and seemed to be well-liked by DJ. Depends on what Logan Shaw does this summer as a UFA too. Belleville needs some vets so I can see Ottawa qualifying him, plus he's cheaper(800k) than Gambrell(1.1M).

Lastly, I have been compiling a list of former Sens in the league(apologies if I missed anyone). I'm curious to hear who you miss most or someone you think Ottawa gave up on too soon? Who do you think has been a disappointment since leaving Ottawa or has been a surprise? Or better yet in a perfect world, who would you have rather on this Sens team now from the list below? Columbus, Pittsburgh, Washington, Chicago, Colorado, Dallas(Ben Bishop just retired), Minnesota, and LA have no former Sens playing in the NHL.

Boston - Nick Foligno, Curtis Lazar, Mike Reilly
Buffalo - Craig Anderson
Detroit - Vladislav Namestnikov
Florida - Anthony Duclair
Tampa Bay - Brian Elliott, Fredrik Claessen
Montreal - Chris Wideman, Mike Hoffman, Cedric Paquette
Toronto - Jason Spezza
Carolina - Derek Stepan, Max Lajoie
New Jersey - Christian Jaros
NY Islanders - JG Pageau, Zdeno Chara
NY Rangers - Mika Zibanejed
Philadelphia - Derick Brassard, Nate Thompson
Arizona - Alex Galchenyuk, Ryan Dzingel
Nashville - Matt Duchene, Mark Borowiecki, Ben Harpur
St. Louis - Logan Brown
Winnipeg - Dylan DeMelo
Anaheim - Jacob Silfverberg, Buddy Robinson, Derek Grant
Calgary - Erik Gudbranson
Edmonton - Cody Ceci, Kyle Turris
San Jose - Rudolps Balcers, Erik Karlsson
Seattle - Joey Daccord
Vancouver - Alex Chiasson
Vegas - Mark Stone, Robin Lehner, Evgenii Dadonov, Michael Amadio

Thanks for reading.
Kevin

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